Life imitates art: the scientific establishment

Turns out that mice aren’t a good model for humans for a good many diseases. But, getting the data published was very hard. Why? Many people’s – scientific reviewers and editors – reputations were damaged, many people’s research was refuted, and many people’s futures were put into question. Scientists are people too. That have motivations and desires and incentives. They are not infallible.

Note the similarity between this story and the events during the Gene Module Beta presentation and immediately thereafter in Evolve, Part 1: Unintended Consequences. The drug and AGR – the company making the drug – were essentially destroyed because of exactly the same kind of pushback from those scientists whose jobs were essentially destroyed by the revolutionary drug (destroyed because the drug cured cancer, thus rendering their research essentially useless).